Rahul, NItish to hold session with MPs of non-NDA parties

New Delhi, Jul 15 : As part of their campaign for the presidential and vice presidential elections, opposition’s candidates Meira Kumar and Gopalkrishna Gandhi would hold an interactive session with MPs of 18 non-NDA parties on Sunday.

The first such joint outreach to be attended by all Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs of non-NDA political parties is being organised in the Parliament annexe tomorrow evening.

The interactive session, the sources say, will see Kumar, the opposition’s presidential nominee, and Gandhi, its vice presidential candidate, make their presentations before them.

They will also answer any queries by MPs and engage with them in the closed-door interactive session, not open to the media.

While the election for the post of president will be held on July 17, that of the vice president, who is the chairman of Rajya Sabha, will be held on August 5.

Though the numbers are stacked in favour of the ruling dispensation, the opposition has made it a battle of ideologies.

Kumar has appealed to the MPs and MLAs for a vote of “conscience” and the “inner voice” in her favour. The opposition feels Gandhi is an ideal candidate as he is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari, the last governor general of India.

As many as 17 non-NDA parties including the Congress, the Left parties, the TMC, BSP, SP, DMK, NCP, RJD, JMM JD-S and NC are supporting Kumar, while the JD(U) is supporting the NDA’s nominee Ram Nath Kovind.

The JD(U) attended the meeting where Gandhi was selected as the joint opposition vice presidential candidate. However, it is not clear whether its MPs will also attend tomorrow’s meeting.

Rahul attacks Modi government over ‘jobless growth’

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked the Modi government and said that “Indias jobless growth and not empowering farmers and farm labourers is not an option any longer”.

He was addressing members of the Congress Steering Committee here.

“Rahulji says India’s jobless growth and not empowering farmers and farm labourers is not an option any longer. Everything can wait but India’s young and farmers can’t,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said on Twitter.

Gandhi on Friday constituted the 34-member Steering Committee in place of the now-dissolved Congress Working Committee ahead of the party’s plenary in New Delhi from March 16 to 18.

New Delhi: Slamming Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s allegations that his family members hold shares in a company run by fraudulent Nirav Modi, Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Shingvi on Saturday threatened to take legal action against the defence minister and other BJP leaders. Singhvi said, “BJP/NDA cheap sense of politics has reached ludicrous and ridiculous proportions. Neither my wife, sons nor me have anything whatsoever to do with Gitanjali or Nirav Modi’s companies.”

He said in his statement…

1. Neither I nor any member of my family has any interest in or relation to Nirav Modi or his companies.
2) His company was a tenant in some commercial property owned by our family company.
3) This tenancy ended in December 2017.
4) None of us have anything to do even remotely with Geetanjali company, Firestone or any other business of Nirav Modi.

Union Defence Minister Sitharaman, in a press conference, accused Singhvi’s wife and son of holding stocks in Fire Star Diamond I’nal Pvt Ltd- a company run by Nirav Modi. Sitharaman said the Congress was blaming us wrongly, as it was them who let out a building to Nirav Modi’s Firestar Diamond, which had Anita Singhvi — the wife of Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi — as one of the directors.

She alleged that all the inheritance, legacy and properties, in this case, belonged to the Congress party. Sitharaman said that the Congress was the beneficiary and promoter of the company, but it was accusing the BJP for their own misdeeds.

“Nirav Modi is BJP’s partner and he has also helped the party during its elections. Here farmers are committing suicides as they are not able to finish their debt of Rs 100-Rs 500, but here people are absconding with a huge amount of money,” news agency ANI quoted, the article asserted.

“However, we are not implying that he managed to loot the (PNB) bank with the blessings of BJP leaders or that a share of it (loot) even went to the party coffers. But, Nirav always strived for the BJP’s financial prosperity and helped it win elections with the mountains of cash he built,” the Sena said sarcastically.

The article concluded saying that Mumbai’s Chhagan Bhujbal and Patna’s Lalu Prasad are behind the bars, but liquor baron Vijay Mallya and Neerav Modi are absconding with lakhs and crores worth money.

Earlier on Friday, an FIR was registered against two Punjab National Bank (PNB) officials over the fraud with the bank.

Meanwhile, eight PNB employees were suspended on the same day.

The number of suspended employees now stands at 18, which also includes General Manager level officers. Internal probe of the bank is still underway.